Folk inspirations with Pekka

Inspirational Finnish multi-musician Pekka Kuusisto makes a spectacular return to the SCO with an exciting residency in the 2022/23 Season.

He’s joined by friend and colleague Sam Amidon, US neo-folk singer/songwriter, in pitch-black murder ballads and music of obsessive love from the USA and Europe. Janácek’s Kreutzer Sonata – arranged by Kuusisto from a string quartet to a full string orchestra – was inspired by a scandalous Tolstoy novella of desire, jealousy and murderous rage, reflecting the composer’s own obsessive love for a woman 38 years his junior. Interwoven between its movements, Amidon sings folk songs from rural Appalachia of crime, redemption and transcendental vision.

Kuusisto brings the wide-ranging concert to a glowing conclusion with one of Sibelius’s most buoyant, optimistic symphonies, weaving together threads of Finnish folk and classical refinement.